World-News

Steve Hammons writes: "Prior to this stage in the Vietnam War, some US officials kept thinking that if they just added more troops, there would be 'victory' and 'success.' After more than 58,000 US military deaths and many more wounded, maimed and damaged veterans the war seemed to be going worse than ever."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011607D.shtml



War of Shadows

Chris Hedges writes: "The plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq will be accompanied by a subtle but disastrous change in the way the war is fought - a change that will almost assuredly increase the monthly tallies of American dead and wounded."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011607E.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Vietnam
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011607C.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Swanson

The US military has sold forbidden equipment at least a half-dozen times to middlemen for countries - including Iran and China - who exploited security flaws in the Defense Department's surplus auctions. The sales include fighter jet parts and missile components.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011607B.shtml

Why They Fight -- From Within

By Linton Weeks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 16, 2007; C01

NORFOLK, Jan. 15 -- For Jonathan Hutto and David Rogers, life has become something of a surreality show. The two Navy men, comrades in arms, are waging a war against a war. Working from within, Hutto, Rogers and others have established AppealforRedress.org , a Web site that enables active-duty, reserve and National Guard troops to appeal directly to Congress to withdraw military personnel from Iraq. On Monday, the group held its coming-out news conference in Norfolk, announcing that more than 1,000 people have signed appeals. On Tuesday, the pleas will be presented to Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) on Capitol Hill. All of this comes at a time when President Bush is sending even more troops to war. "Just because you joined the military doesn't mean your constitutional rights are suspended," said Hutto, a petty officer third class and 1999 Howard University graduate. "True patriotism is having a questioning attitude about the government." Redress in this situation means relief, he said. "Relief from this war." Hutto, 29, works in communications on an aircraft carrier. Rogers, 34, is quartermaster on a frigate. They've been friends since boot camp three years ago. Neither has served in Iraq. But they say 60 percent of the signers have served in the war. The signers are not lawbreakers, deserters or conscientious objectors, Hutto says. They believe in obeying orders. Some, however, are reticent to appear in public. Organizers estimated that about two dozen active-duty members showed up at the Norfolk event, in a church near the naval base here. They were expecting 50. Hutto pointed out that many of the signers do not live in the Norfolk area. The Appeal for Redress group has its critics. "The military's job is to carry out and implement foreign policy, not influence it," said Wade Zirkle, the executive director of Vets for Freedom. "That's what separates our country from military dictatorships. That's why we don't have military coups and military people running our country." For military folks to appeal for redress "is un-American in principle," Zirkle said, and he pointed out that some of the organizers haven't even been to Iraq. A first lieutenant in the Marines, Zirkle served two tours there and was injured by a car bomb. In between fielding phone calls and hanging banners for the rally, Hutto and Rogers paused for a moment in a downtown park on Sunday. A memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. loomed in the sunny distance. Both men wore Martin Luther King Jr. pins. The idea for the within-the-ranks antiwar group came after Hutto read "Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War" by David Cortright. Hutto showed the book to Rogers. They invited Cortright to come to Norfolk. "I was so impressed by the seriousness of the discussion," said Cortright, who teaches peace studies at the University of Notre Dame. He said it takes guts for active military members to speak out. "But they do it respectfully." A specialist 4 during Vietnam, Cortright said there were hundreds of active-military antiwar groups by 1970. "They published underground newspapers, ran coffeehouses, organized demonstrations and protests," he said. He recalled that in 1969, a petition signed by more than 1,300 active-duty military people -- calling for a national protest against the Vietnam War -- ran in the New York Times. A widely circulated appeal for redress is a new wrinkle made possible by the Internet. The plea is simply stated. Here is the nut: I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq. Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. The site is also sponsored by Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out. Hutto launched the Web site in October. Signers include: Kevin Torres, 23, from Brooklyn, a sergeant in the 101st Airborne who has served two tours in Iraq. "I felt like with our being there, we were making more enemies," he said. "The people hated us. They wanted us out of the city." And Liam Madden, 22, a Marine sergeant from Vermont. He spent seven months on the ground in Iraq. "I saw Iraq struggling to get on its feet and failing to do so -- despite the best efforts of American military," he said. "I have nothing against the military or my experience. It's the policy I oppose." Though Madden was braced for some sort of retribution, formal or informal, after he went public with his opposition to the war, "it never came," he said. "I give credit to my chain of command. After all, the appeal for redress is legal." Madden helped to launch the site last fall. A portion is devoted to the rights and responsibilities of people in military service. A Defense Department directive allows members of the military to send a protected communication to a member of Congress on any matter without blowback. Kucinich will meet today with representatives of the group to receive the appeals for redress and present them to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "I think it's important for the troops to have a vehicle by which they can address Congress," Kucinich, a vociferous opponent of the war, said in a phone interview. "We need to hear from them." He said warriors have the right to question their mission and not be like the cavalry in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade": Theirs not to reason why /Theirs but to do and die. Hutto and Rogers are aware that the Navy could become more directly involved if the United States turns its attention toward Iran. "I would go, with serious questions," Hutto said. "And with a bit of sorrow." And, he said, "I would go because I'm in solidarity with the men and women I serve with." Rogers agreed, though he said the whole affair -- being an antiwar warrior -- reminds him of the novel "Catch-22." Neither sailor will be in Washington on Tuesday for the presentation of the appeals. Following previous orders, they both are headed to sea.


Informant: Ashley Smith



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=redress
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Watada

Council on Wireless Technology Impacts
Citizens and professionals concerned about responsible use of electromagnetic radiation
936-B Seventh Street, #206, Novato, California 94945
http://www.energyfields.org/

For Immediate Release

January 15, 2007
Contact: Rebekah Azen
505-424-9475
rebekah(et)cybermesa.com


LIBRARY DIRECTOR RESIGNS BECAUSE OF WIFI

A Library Director at a college in Santa Fe, NM left her position due to wireless internet (WiFi) in the library. Rebekah Zablud Azen, MLIS, resigned from her position at Quimby Memorial Library, Southwestern College, on December 16th, 2006 after administrators refused to discuss the issue.

"I don't feel that I should have to jeopardize my health to secure or maintain employment, but allowing oneself to be irradiated is fast becoming a condition of employment for librarians. I just said no."

B. Blake Levitt, a medical journalist who has been researching the biological affects of nonionizing radiation since the late '70's, and author of: Electromagnetic Fields: A Consumer's Guide to the Issues and How to Protect Ourselves, and Cell Towers: Wireless Convenience? or Environmental Hazard? wrote, "Once considered safe environments/professions, librarians and teachers are now in high risk professions."

Azen is not the first librarian to express opposition or leave her position because of WiFi. In Santa Fe, four librarians recently signed a petition against WiFi in the public libraries, while several others objected to WiFi but were afraid to speak out. There is a librarian on the west coast that has been told not to discuss this issue by library administration and a report of two librarians who moved to rural towns and left the profession.

The proliferation of wireless technologies is a growing and serious public health hazard, says Azen. "There is no evidence proving safety and an abundance of evidence demonstrating biological harm to living systems. Anyone who cares to look into the vast body of research that has been conducted over the past 80 years will find that the weight of evidence points to harm. The only sensible response is precaution."

Current safety standards adopted by federal agencies like OSHA were developed by industry groups and are obsolete. EPA senior scientist and radiofrequency (RF) radiation expert, Norbert Hankin, wrote, "Both the NCRP (National Council on Radiation Protection) and ANSI/IEEE standards are thermally based and do not apply to chronic non-thermal exposure situations." In other words, if it doesn't "cook tissue," it is assumed to be safe. Research indicates however that low-power exposure (WiFi is "low power') has been shown to have numerous biological effects which can lead to serious health consequences, including neurological, cardiological and hormonal disorders, breakdown of the blood-brain barrier, DNA damage, cancers, diabetes and asthma. Children, to whom public libraries cater, have brains and nervous systems that are still developing; they are particularly vulnerable.

Among the many scientists, organizations, government agencies and medical societies issuing bans or precautions, Lakehead University, in Canada, prohibits WiFi on its campus; the Public Health Department in Salzburg, Austria advises against WiFi in schools; the Schools Depart-ment in Frankfurt, Germany prohibits WiFi in schools; and the Austrian Medical Association warns against wireless technologies, including WiFi. The Benevento Resolution is the most recent and comprehensive pronouncement by 31 scientists internationally.

The Benevento Resolution http://www.icems.eu/docs/Benevento_press_release.pdf states, "Based on our review of the science, biological effects can occur from exposures to both Extremely Low Frequency Electromagnetic Fields (ELF EMF) and Radiofrequency fields (RF EMF). More evidence has accumulated that there are adverse health effects from occupational and public exposure to electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields, or EMF at current exposure levels." The resolution also specifically warns against exposure to WiFi systems.

Azen is also opposed to WiFi in libraries because it creates barriers to access for people with disabilities. People with certain types of heart disease, epilepsy, and others with electromagnetic sensitivity react with pain, confusion, and neurological or cardiac symptoms and are effectively denied access to libraries with WiFi. In California alone, a 1998 survey by the California Dept. of Health Services found that 120,000 Californians were unable to work due to electromagnetic radiation. Today, this number is undoubtedly much higher due to the rapid growth of wireless technologies.

Librarians have always upheld the principle that access to libraries and information is inviolate, says Azen. "Today, this important library principle is eroding due the unquestioned acceptance of WiFi. Libraries should retain their autonomy as "wireless-free" zones. Instead of rushing to join the herd to go wireless, libraries should be building collections on this topic and educating the populace about the hazards associated with this technology."

Azen says there are other issues as well with WiFi in libraries: libraries are relinquishing their unique role by morphing into internet cafés, the provision of special services to those who have the money to afford laptops is re-igniting the digital divide, WiFi service imposes a financial and personnel drain on libraries already struggling to build collections and maintain traditional library services, and unsecured networks compromise a library's commitment to protect user privacy and confidentiality. "Social security numbers, financial records, and yes, library records, are all vulnerable in unsecured wireless networks."

Azen says that librarians need to assess technological trends wisely and ensure that the adoption of new technologies does not adversely impact public health, restrict access, undermine the treasured principles upon which we stand, or erode libraries. She says there are simple solutions to providing more computer access, such as installing wired hubs for patrons.

WiFi is the proverbial elephant in the room. We must, as a profession, begin to open up a dialog on this critical issue that is affecting libraries and librarians everywhere, says Azen.


Informant: Iris Atzmon

--------

Wireless library is a health hasard

I was surprised to hear the new eco flagship Jubliee library in Brighton has installed digital cordless DECT phones on every floor.

People don't seem to realise the base unit of these phones emits microwave radiation all the time whether or not one is on a call.

The levels will be higher than from a nearby phone mast - both DECT and Wi-fi use the same technology as mobile phone masts.

It is for this reason that the German Health Protection Agency issued a warning on DECT phones last year.

I was also disappointed to read that East Grinstead library are trialling Wi-fi computer access (The argus March 6).

Before these trials are put in place, those in charge should review the health implications for librarians and users.

There is evidence coming to light these systems are less than safe. The frequency is the same as used in a microwave oven.

The intensity inside the library will be the same or higher than from a phone mast outside.

The Times recently reported that schools which are also installing Wifi are having to dismantle it at the request of parents and teachers who have experienced serious adverse health effects.

Librarians in the USA are resigning over this issue. The Salzburg public health dept warns not to put Wi-fi in schools and nurseries.

There is a lot of research into the effects and many people made ill from exposure to the radiation emitted by these systems. It is possible to cable in computers for internet access. Wifi is not necessary.

Sarah Purdy
Mast Sanity
London

--------

EMF/EMR from Wireless Networks can lower Melatonin
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3482006/

Health fears lead schools to dismantle wireless networks
http://freepage.twoday.net/stories/2957963/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=WIFI
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=WIFI
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Benevento
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Blake+Levitt
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Blake+Levitt

'We Have To Tell The Story Ourselves'
http://ga3.org/ct/Ed20pgF1-z8X/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bill+Moyers

Disloyalty To The Constitution

by Aziz Huq, TomPaine.com
http://ga3.org/ct/U120pgF1-z8f/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo

How To De-Fund The Escalation
http://ga3.org/ct/Ud20pgF1-z8v/

http://action.defenders.org/site/R?i=IWV4P3bk-vmm3TLL3gxqdg..

With 16 huts cobbled together from plywood, discarded closet doors and cardboard, Umoja is a shantytown in the shadow of the biggest construction boom Miami has seen since the 1920s. Started in October by an advocate for low-income housing, it is part social protest and part social experiment, with nightly meetings where decisions on whether to evict people or how to split up chores are determined by consensus.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011607P.shtml



Unlikely Allies Advocate Healthcare Overhaul

Today, the president of the Service Employees International Union will stand with the director of the Business Roundtable, which represents the nation's leading corporations, to announce one campaign to overhaul health care.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011607O.shtml

The Iraqi government is moving to solidify relations with Iran, even as the United States turns up the rhetorical heat and bolsters its military forces to confront Tehran's influence in Iraq.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011607L.shtml

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards called on Americans to resist President Bush's planned troop escalation in Iraq, echoing a plea by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 40 years ago to end the Vietnam War. "Silence is betrayal, and I believe it is a betrayal not to speak out against the escalation of the war in Iraq," Edwards said to a sustained standing ovation.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011607K.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+Edwards
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Luther
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Vietnam

Take Action!
http://www.stopcorporateabusenow.org/campaign/bigoil#oil



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Oil
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Exxon

Michael Haines with his petition against the phone mast

More than 1,000 people have opposed plans to erect a phone mast disguised as a telegraph pole in Marston, Oxford.

Vodafone wants to put the pole in Jack Straw's Lane, near St Michael and All Angels Church, 100 yards from the site of a previous application in Marston Road.

A petition, organised by Marston resident Michael Haines, has already picked up 1,023 signatures - and he hopes to get at least 2,000 before he hands it to Oxford City Council at the end of the month.

This is not the first petition Mr Haines has run. He collected 779 signatures when he successfully opposed the earlier phone mast application in November, 2005.

Mr Haines, 66, of Croft Road, and other residents in the area do not want the 10-metre high phone mast to go up because they feel it is unsightly and the radiation from the mast could lead to health problems.

The purpose of the mast is to provide high quality 3G coverage to the Marston area of the city.

Vodafone considered the Jack Straw's Lane location to be one that will have less impact on the environment. The pole will be located on a grass verge, near a number of trees which will provide some screening for the site.

Mr Haines said: "The residents are concerned that Vodafone has put new plans in for a new phone mast.

"I have set up another petition and I have been knocking on residents' doors in the area asking that they say no to this new mast and stop it from going up.

"I have already got more signatures than the last petition, but I do hope to get at least 2,000 in total before I take it to the city council before January 31.

"Everyone has been very supportive and are only too happy to sign it."

Mr Haines hopes the council will refuse planning permission for the phone mast.

Vodafone spokesman Rob Matthews, said the current proposal took account of comments from the council and the Government inspector when they refused the earlier proposal for Marston Road.

He said: "All Vodafone's sites are designed and operated in accordance with stringent international exposure guidelines that have the formal backing of independent bodies such as the World Health Organisation."

Omega read "Base Stations, operating within strict national and international Guidelines, do not present a Health Risk?" under: http://omega.twoday.net/stories/771911/

© Copyright 2001-2007 Newsquest Media Group

http://www.oxfordmail.net/news/headlines/display.var.1122687.0.residents_oppose_plans_for_mobile_phone_mast.php

A CONTROVERSIAL phone mast has received the green light to go up in between two Winchester schools.

Mobile phone giants O2 will start building the 10m monopole and radio base station later this month after telecom sub-committee members voted unanimously in favour of the proposal.

Highways representatives had forced an initial application to be withdrawn saying the base station cabinet was on part of the pavement that was too narrow and would cause pedestrians to walk on to the road when maintenance work was carried out.
Advertisement continued...

They withdrew their objection after fresh designs were drawn up and the proposed location moved to a wider section of the pavement near the railway bridge in Andover Road.

The city council received nine letters of objection and two members of the public attended the meeting in the Jolly Farmer pub car park on Friday St Paul ward councillor Ray Pearce said he was worried about the number of masts that have gone up in Winchester recently and hoped that network providers could agree to share masts in the future.

"I'm concerned that they are popping up like mushrooms," said Cllr Pearce. Fellow ward councillor Geoffrey Bennetts said residents had expressed concerns about the proximity of the mast in relation to Peter Symonds College and Osborne School.

"Every opportunity should be explored for mast sharing," said Cllr Bennetts.

Gavin Smith, of Waldon Telecom, representing O2, told the committee the mast was needed to enhance the O2 network coverage for rail users so they didn't lose connection on their journeys. It would also enhance local coverage.

Mr Smith added negotiations to share the Vodafone mast at nearby Hunts Frozen Foods came to nothing because they couldn't get the coverage required.

Recommending approval for the application, case officer Simon Avery said: "It's the same height as existing lamp posts and would blend in with existing street furniture so it isn't visually intrusive."

Karen Barratt, a representative of the Wessex Registry of Active Masts, urged the committee to consider health risks.

She said it was an "extraordinary" and "terrible" position for a mast and thought it would make walking on the path difficult for people with pushchairs.

"It's not even serving people in Winchester but people on the trains. I find it quite amazing," she said.

Chairman of the telecom sub-committee Mike Read said the application had to be determined on "siting and appearance" and all three committee members in attendance, Anthony De Peyer, Robert Johnston and Cecily Sutton approved the application.

© Copyright 2001-2007 Newsquest Media Group

http://www.thisishampshire.net/news/hampshirechroniclenews/display.var.1114624.0.fears_fail_to_halt_phone_mast_plan.php

CONCERN has been raised in Bishop's Waltham about the proposed siting of a mobile phone mast in St Peter's Church tower.

St Peter's Parochial Church council said it had been approached with a view to a cell-phone antenna being mounted in the tower.

The proposal by QS4 Ltd - appointed by the Church of England to negotiate with mobile phone operators on behalf of all churches - is to be discussed by the church faculty, which decides on any alterations inside or outside of the church.

Pat Wilson, a member of the St Peter's Church Parochial Church Council, said she was opposed to a mast being placed in St Peter's.

She said: "I thought the church was the heart of the community and I feel it will end up a cancer of the community.

"I am a practising Christian and I feel the church should be more responsible. There is no other reason for this but financial gain."

However, as part of the consultation process, some people living nearby have raised no objections about the plans.

Paul Emmerson, churchwarden at St Peter's Church, said more people are to be encouraged to give their views to the Parochial Church Council.

Karen Barratt, a spokesman for Wessex Registry Against Masts, speaking about masts being placed in church buildings, said: "This is not uncommon.

"There are hundreds of examples of objections to masts going up on churches, and the trouble is planning legislation is pretty weak when it comes to phone masts.

"Unless people have been living on a desert island for the last 10 years, everyone knows there is a lot of concern regarding what effects phone masts have on health.

"I think it is very bad that these things can sneak through without a proper planning process that involves the public.

"In Bishop's Waltham's case, as long as the church is going to consult and be open and up front about this, it is better than some churches do."

The Rev Andy Davis, of St Peter's Church, was unavailable to comment on the plan at the time of going to press.

© Copyright 2001-2007 Newsquest Media Group

http://www.thisishampshire.net/news/hampshirechroniclenews/display.var.1114595.0.church_tower_could_house_phone_antenna.php

So easy to believe the lie

Liberty For All
by Ed Lewis

When national security is mentioned, it is always with the thought that it is a term referring to the security of the American people. And, yet, the security of the American people is never enhanced but is, instead, increasingly threatened. In fact, the most serious threat to the American people is because of national security. Every measure taken since Lincoln’s reign has been to deprive people of their rights... (written 05/02; posted 01/15/07)

http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=468


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://tinyurl.com/ymg8s9


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bill+of+Rights

In harm’s way every day

Hawaii Reporter
by Walter Chun

01/13/07

In our past elections, it was disgusting and pitiful to watch the politicians use the war and the plight of our soldiers as a platform for election. It was shameful and unpatriotic. At the end of the elections there was one and only one politician, our governor, who apologized to our soldiers for making them a political issue. What does it say when one and only one politician recognizes that the elections forgot our soldiers? Our politicians forgot that our soldiers were in harm’s way every day...

http://tinyurl.com/yeue6j


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Guardian [UK]
by Simon Tisdale

01/12/07

If George Bush’s remodelled strategy for halting the Iraq disaster fails to work, it is becoming clear where the US administration will point the finger of blame: Tehran. For some months Washington has been moving aggressively on a range of fronts to ‘pin back’ Iran, in Tony Blair’s words. But Mr Bush’s Iraq policy speech on Wednesday night marked the opening of a new, far more aggressive phase which could extend the conflict into Iranian territory for the first time since the 2003 invasion...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1988731,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Fox News
by Susan Estrich

01/14/07

Remember ‘Condi for President?’ It was just a little over a year ago that Dick Morris was dominating the airwaves and the bestseller list with his argument that the secretary of state was the candidate: the one who Republicans needed to draft, the only hope to beat Hillary Clinton, the personal embodiment of the future of the Republican Party. Democrats openly expressed concern that even if she didn’t end up in the top slot, she would be the obvious choice for vice president, with the potential to break the bounds of loyalty that had tied African Americans to the Democratic Party. Not anymore. The woman who went to Capitol Hill on Thursday to defend the president’s proposed escalation of the Iraq war is not on anyone’s short list for anything in 2008. ‘Grilled Rice,’ the on-line magazine Slate described it, in summarizing the day’s papers. Fried Rice might have been more accurate...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,243650,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Condoleezza+Rice
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Susan+Estrich

Spoils of war

In These Times
by Antonia Juhasz

01/15/07

Remember oil? That thing we didn’t go to war in Iraq for? Now with his war under attack, even President George W. Bush has gone public, telling reporters last August, ‘[a] failed Iraq … would give the terrorists and extremists an additional tool besides safe haven, and that is revenues from oil sales.’ Of course, Bush not only wants to keep oil out of his enemies’ hands, he also wants to put it into the hands of his friends. The President’s concern over Iraq’s oil is shared by the Iraq Study Group, which on December 6 released its much-anticipated report. While the mainstream press focused on the report’s criticism of Bush’s handling of the war and the report’s call for (potential) removal of (most) U.S. troops (maybe) by 2008, ignored was the report’s focus on Iraq’s oil. Page 1, chapter 1 laid out in no uncertain terms Iraq’s importance to the Middle East, the United States and the world with this reminder: ‘It has the world’s second-largest known oil reserves’...

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2979/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+oil
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group

The Weekly Standard
by Duncan Currie

Some Republicans have comforted themselves with the thought that Democrats who won ‘red’ districts would want to keep their distance from liberal leaders such as Nancy Pelosi and soft-pedal their criticism of Bush, should they desire a second term. While this may be true on taxes, immigration, and some cultural issues, the war in Iraq is another matter. In fact, among those House Democrats who took over Republican seats, there is almost uniform opposition to the counterinsurgency plan and troop reinforcements that Bush announced last week. ‘Every freshman I’ve spoken with is just disgusted with this,’ says a Democratic House aide, who claims one of his party’s freshmen mocked the Bush speech as ‘blabbering buffoonery’... (for publication 01/22/07)

http://tinyurl.com/snlln


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge

Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland

01/15/07

Although President Bush’s escalation of the Iraq War has been opposed by a substantial majority of the American people, many generals, the Iraq Study Group, and most Democrats and some Republicans in Congress, the most important opposition may come from Iraqis. Although Bush had trouble correctly reading the results of the November 2006 congressional elections, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki got the message loud and clear. When Maliki met Bush in Amman, Jordan, later in November, he hoped the newly chastened American president would be sensible enough to lower the U.S. profile in Baghdad. Maliki demanded that the United States turn most of the security responsibilities in Baghdad over to the Iraqi government and withdraw U.S. forces to the outskirts of the capital. Rather than training Iraqi security forces and moving toward the exits, however, the president has decided to do the opposite. His escalation of the war will now result in U.S. forces bearing the brunt of the fighting and dying in the Iraqi capital...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1892


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+Study+Group
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Maliki
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ivan+Eland

AlterNet
by Marjorie Cohn

01/16/07

In one of the most severe blows the Bush administration has dealt to our constitutional democracy, the Pentagon attacked the lawyers who have volunteered to represent the Guantanamo detainees. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Stimson threatened corporate lawyers who agree to defend the men and boys imprisoned there. Flashing a list of corporations that use law firms doing this pro bono work, Stimson declared, ‘Corporate C.E.O.’s seeing this should ask firms to choose between lucrative retainers and representing terrorists’...

http://www.alternet.org/rights/46755/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Marjorie+Cohn

National Review
by William F. Buckley, Jr.

01/15/07

Is our Iraqi enterprise worth a corporate commitment by America? That is the taxing question. If success in Iraq would bring an end to the movement of which Iraq is now the apex, the answer would clearly be yes. Has the president persuasively argued that it would do so? No. He has said that ‘failure in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States.’ He hasn’t said why. Great countries do lose great engagements. We did in Vietnam and Korea, and the Soviets did in Afghanistan...

http://tinyurl.com/y2x34a


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=William+Buckley

AntiWar.Com
by Doug Bandow

01/12/07

The ongoing threat to Republican values is obvious today. There is little about the Bush administration or the Bush administration’s war that represents traditional conservatism. If Republicans care about what they preach, and the country they seek to lead, they must confront a failing policy in Iraq. GOP leaders also have a partisan interest in acting. With the Republican administration determined to commit the political equivalent of ritual seppuku, presidential contenders and Republican legislators need to separate themselves if they hope to survive in 2008. Last November Democrats won despite manifold GOP advantages: the power of incumbency, congressional maldistricting, a growing economy, and Democratic disunity. Polls show that the Iraq war swept everything before it, poisoning the environment for all Republicans. If America remains mired in a disastrous Iraqi civil war 22 months from now, the GOP losses could be cataclysmic...

http://antiwar.com/bandow/?articleid=10307


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GOP
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/bandow
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Doug+Bandow

Mr. Bush: Meet Walter Jones
LewRockwell.Com
by Pat Buchanan

01/16/07

Bush’s contempt for Congress is manifest and, frankly, justified. Asked if Congress could stop him from surging 21,500 troops into Iraq, Bush on ‘60 Minutes’ brushed aside Congress as irrelevant. ‘I fully understand (the Congress) could try to stop me from doing it. But I’ve made my decision. And we’re going forward.’ Asked if he had sole authority ‘to put the troops in there no matter what the Congress wants to do,’ Bush replied, ‘In this situation I do, yeah.’ Is Congress then impotent, if it does not want war on Iran? Enter Rep. Walter Jones, Republican of North Carolina. The day after Bush’s threat to Iran, Jones introduced a Joint Resolution, ‘Concerning the Use of Military Force by the United States Against Iran.’ Under HJR 14, ‘Absent a national emergency created by attack by Iran, or a demonstrably imminent attack by Iran, upon the United States, its territories, possessions or its armed forces, the president shall consult with Congress, and receive specific authorization pursuant to law from Congress, prior to initiating any use of force on Iran’...

http://www.lewrockwell.com/buchanan/buchanan50.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pat+Buchanan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/buchanan

Slate
by Shmuel Rosner

01/12/07

Donald Rumsfeld’s tenure as secretary of defense is quickly fading from memory, but yesterday, as his successor shuttled from briefing to hearing, one of Rumsfeld’s famous aphorisms came to mind: If you can’t solve a problem, enlarge it. Coming from Gates, it sounded technical rather than slick. ‘We are beginning to move aggressively to try and identify and root out the networks that are involved in helping to bring Iranian-supplied [bombs] into Iraq,’ Gates said. If you can’t solve Iraq, enlarge it. While you were sleeping, the war with Iran might have begun...

http://www.slate.com/id/2157489/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Lost in the woods

The American Spectator
by William Tucker

01/16/07

So we’re going to send in 20,000 more troops. Why? To disarm the Shi’ite militia. These are the people we supposedly went in to liberate! They were going to greet us with open arms. It was the Sunnis and the dead-ender Baathists who were the problem. Now we’re even starting to offend the Kurds. You know perfectly well, in another six months we’ll be at war with the whole country. Then we’ll have to send in another 50,000 troops — or will it be 100,000? Close your eyes and it’s 1968...

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10876


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp


http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge

Sullivan’s monstrous and inhuman calculus

The Power of Narrative
by Arthur Silber

01/15/07

From the lofty perch of Western egocentrism which regards the world as its plaything, Sullivan casually omits the critical preliminary fact: that all this ‘blood-letting’ at this moment in history would follow from the United States’ unjustified, criminal and murderous invasion and destruction of Iraq. Even if it were true that a civil war at this time would represent ‘the product of ancient feuds within Islam,’ it would have been unleashed by our actions. Sullivan might prevent this fundamental truth from entering his consciousness, and he obviously is capable of deluding himself as to the ‘narrative’ he prefers — but it should be prohibitively stupid to think that millions of Arabs and Muslims will be persuaded to ignore what we have done, or to forget history altogether...

http://tinyurl.com/t6ye2


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18945


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

USA Today

01/15/07

President Bush’s address to the nation last week failed to move public opinion in support of his plan to increase U.S. troop levels in Iraq and left Americans more pessimistic about the likely outcome of the war. In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, more than 6 of 10 people back the idea of a non-binding congressional resolution expressing opposition to Bush’s plan to commit an additional 21,500 U.S. troops to Iraq...

http://tinyurl.com/y7uho5


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2007/160107smartbombs.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Somalia

Rekordtief im Jahr 2006. Krankenstand sinkt weiter

„Der Krankenstand in Deutschland ist erneut gesunken. Mit nunmehr noch 3,29 Prozent lag er 2006 um drei Hundertstel Prozentpunkte unter den Vorjahresstand. Pflichtversicherte in der Gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung fehlten im Schnitt 7,2 Tage. 2005 war der der Krankenstand von zuvor 3,4 Prozent auf den damaligen Tiefstand von 3,3 Prozent gefallen. Der Trend besteht seit Jahrzehnten: In den 70er Jahren lag der Krankenstand noch über fünf Prozent. Klaus Priester, Mediensoziologe an der Evangelischen Fachhochschule Ludwigshafen, warnt jedoch davor, aus den Zahlen auf den tatsächlichen Gesundheitszustand der Bevölkerung zu schließen. Denn die Daten bezögen sich noch nicht einmal auf alle Erwerbstätigen, sondern nur auf die Pflichtversicherten in einer gesetzlichen Krankenkasse. 2006 wurden außerdem erstmals nur noch die Empfänger von Arbeitslosengeld I in der Statistik berücksichtigt. Langzeitarbeitslose, die "deutlich höhere Krankenstände aufweisen", blieben außen vor…“ Artikel in Frankfurter Rundschau vom 16.01.2007 http://www.fr-online.de/in_und_ausland/wirtschaft/aktuell/?sid=327ad98597bb4a1b2ffda0de5f534a55&em_cnt=1051191

Siehe dazu auch:

Arbeitsfehlzeiten: Wie krank sind die Deutschen wirklich?

„Die Deutschen melden sich immer seltener krank. Gewerkschafter führen das auf die Angst vor einem möglichen Jobverlust zurück. Wirtschaftsforscher warnen dagegen vor Panikmache: Sie haben für den rückläufigen Krankenstand andere Erklärungen…“ Artikel von Anselm Waldermann in Spiegel online vom 15. Januar 2007 http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,459808,00.html


Aus: LabourNet, 16. Januar 2007

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Niedrige Krankenstände: Beschäftigte gehen laut DGB immer häufiger krank zur Arbeit

16.01.07

DGB-Vorstandsmitglied Annelie Buntenbach hält die auf ein Rekordtief gesunkenen Krankenstände der Beschäftigten für ein Alarmsignal. "Die niedrige Zahl der Fehltage zeigt nicht, dass die Menschen weniger krank sind, sondern dass sie immer häufiger krank zur Arbeit gehen", sagte Buntenbach der "Berliner Zeitung". "Den niedrigen Krankenstand als Erfolgsmeldung zu verkaufen, wäre unverantwortlich", meint Buntenbach. Das Bundesgesundheitsministerium hatte zuvor ein weiteres Sinken der krankheitsbedingten Fehlzeiten von Arbeitnehmern bestätigt.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet: http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=15126

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Krankenstand und Anwesenheit im Krankheitsfall

Weniger Fehlzeiten: Krank? Ach, wo!

Komfortablere Arbeitsplätze, Angst vor Jobverlust, mehr Kontrolle? Warum der Krankenstand seit Jahren sinkt. Artikel von Miriam Hoffmeyer in Süddeutsche Zeitung vom 02.03.2007 http://www.sueddeutsche.de/,ra8m5/jobkarriere/artikel/212/104108/


Aus: LabourNet, 8. März 2007

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Arbeitsalltag: Gesundheit trotz(t) Arbeit > Krankenstand und Anwesenheit im Krankheitsfall: Krankenstand 2007

Krankentage könnten erstmals wieder steigen – mit 12,4 Krankentagen in
2006 offenbar Talsohle erreicht – psychische Krankheiten nehmen weiter zu

„Der Trend der stetig sinkenden Krankenstände der letzten Jahre setzt sich nach ersten Erkenntnissen 2007 nicht fort. Bezogen auf das Gesamtjahr 2007 werden die Fehltage voraussichtlich nicht zurückgehen. BKK-Erhebungen weisen für das erste Halbjahr 2007 sogar einen leicht erhöhten Krankenstand gegenüber dem Vorjahr auf (Halbjahreswert für 2007: 3,9 Prozent; Vorjahreszeitraum 2006: 3,6 Prozent). Dies deutet darauf hin, dass sich das kontinuierliche Absinken der Krankenstände nicht weiter fortsetzt. Im vergangenen Jahr wurden mit 12,4 Tagen noch die geringsten Krankentage seit 30 Jahren ausgewiesen, jedoch scheint in diesem Jahr die Talsohle bei den geringen Fehlzeiten durchschritten zu sein…“ Pressemitteilung des BKK Bundesverbandes vom 23.07.2007 http://www.bkk.de/bkk/pressemitteilungen/powerslave,id,370,nodeid,15.html

Siehe dazu: BKK Gesundheitsreport 2006 „Demografischer und wirtschaftlicher Wandel – gesundheitliche Folgen“ (pdf, 4 MB) http://tinyurl.com/yunjhx

Siehe dazu auch:

Stress und psychische Belastungen


Krankenstand. Die Kehrseite des Aufschwungs: Im Berufsalltag nimmt der Stress zu, und immer mehr Arbeitnehmer erkranken an Depressionen und Neurosen.

„In Deutschland sind psychische Erkrankungen weiter auf dem Vormarsch. Zwischen 2001 und 2006 hätten die Ausfalltage am Arbeitsplatz um 17 Prozent zugenommen, berichtete der Bundesverband der Betriebskrankenkassen am Montag. Die alljährliche BKK-Studie basiert auf den Gesundheitsbefunden von 6,6 Millionen der insgesamt rund 26,4 Millionen sozialversicherungspflichtig Menschen in Deutschland. Als auffällig bezeichnet die Erhebung, dass vor allem Depressionen (mit 35 Prozent) in den vergangenen Jahren besonders stark zugenommen hätten…“ Artikel von Michael Bergius in der FR vom 24.07.2007 http://www.fr-online.de/top_news/?sid=29695784feb3f9731249900677126cb5&em_cnt=1178183


Aus: LabourNet, 24. Juli 2007

--------

Gesundheit trotz(t) Arbeit: Krankenstand und Anwesenheit im Krankheitsfall
http://groups.google.de/group/freepage-news/t/b60310cec0fc42d0?hl=en



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Krankenstand
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Fehlzeiten

Mit dem jüngsten Vorschlag der Sozialdemokraten eines „Bonus für Arbeit“
würden viele Geringverdiener noch draufzahlen. Artikel von Michael
Schlecht, Chefvolkswirt beim Verdi-Bundesvorstand, erschienen am 12.
Januar 2007 in der Financial Times Deutschland, dokumentiert bei der
Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen (pdf)
http://www.arbeitnehmerkammer.de/sozialpolitik/doku/01_aktuell/ticker/2007/2007_01_12_ftd_schlecht.pdf


Aus: LabourNet, 16. Januar 2007

Die EU-Grundrechte-Charta und die Verfassungsdebatte

Informationen

Die EU-Verfassung: Ein demokratisches Paradestück? Die deutsche EU-Ratspräsidentschaft will die gescheiterte und weiterhin unbeliebte EU-Verfassung wieder in die Gänge kriegen

„In Deutschland haben die Volksvertreter im Mai 2005 über ein wegweisendes Dokument abgestimmt, das im Zweifel über dem Grundgesetz steht: Die EU-Verfassung. Wie eine Sendung des Fernsehmagazins Panorama damals herausfand, hatten viele Abgeordnete die Verfassung [extern] nicht einmal gelesen. Dennoch stimmten 95 Prozent der deutschen Parlamentarier für dieses grundlegende Dokument. Nach den gescheiterten Referenden in Frankreich und den Niederlanden war diese Verfassung Europas eigentlich tot. Nun will die deutsche EU-Ratspräsidentschaft sie wiederbeleben…“ Artikel von Gerhard Klas in telepolis vom 16.01.2007 http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24413/1.html


Aus: LabourNet, 16. Januar 2007

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Die EU-Verfassung: Ein demokratisches Paradestück?

Die deutsche EU-Ratspräsidentschaft will die gescheiterte und weiterhin unbeliebte EU-Verfassung wieder in die Gänge kriegen.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24413/1.html

--------

"Aufhebung der Gewaltenteilung": Alt-Bundespräsident Herzog wegen Demokratiedefizit gegen EU-Verfassung

16.01.07

Alt-Bundespräsident Roman Herzog lehnt die geplante EU-Verfassung in ihrer derzeitigen Form ab. Damit würden die "erheblichen Fehlentwicklungen in der Europäischen Union" nur weiter zementiert, schreibt Herzog als Kuratoriumsmitglied des Centrums für Europäische Politik (CEP) in einem Beitrag für die "Welt am Sonntag". Die Politik der Europäischen Union leide "in Besorgnis erregender Weise unter einem Demokratiedefizit und einer faktischen Aufhebung der Gewaltenteilung", betonte Herzog. Auch sei der Bundestag in die für Deutschland relevante EU-Gesetzgebung nicht so eingebunden, wie es das Grundgesetz für das deutsche Parlament verlange. Hinzu komme, dass die EU immer weitere Kompetenzen erlange, obwohl dies sachlich häufig nicht angebracht sei.

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet: http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=15113

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DEUTSCHER EU-VORSITZ

Das Programm der deutschen EU-Ratspräsidentschaft lässt für 2007 Schlimmes vermuten - deshalb hat Attac bereits zu Jahresanfang daran scharfe Kritik geübt und im Rahmen eines "Katerfrühstücks" Alternativen für ein friedliches, demokratisches, soziales und ökologisches Europa vorgestellt. "Mit der Ankündigung, die notfalls auch militärische Sicherung der europäischen Energieversorgung und die Reaktivierung der EU-Verfassung ins Zentrum ihres Vorsitzes zu stellen, serviert die Bundesregierung einen unbekömmlichen Neujahrspunsch, der den Sozialabbau und die Militarisierung in der EU auf Jahre hinaus festschreiben wird", sagte Sven Giegold vom Attac-KoKreis. Der vollständige Text der entsprechenden Pressemitteilung findet sich unter http://www.attac.de/aktuell/presse/presse_ausgabe.php?id=653 .

Der offensiv neoliberalen Strategie der Bundesregierung als EU-Gastgeberin hat Attac einiges entgegenzusetzen - das wird sich u.a. bei der Konferenz "EU global - fatal?" am 30./31. März dieses Jahres in Stuttgart zeigen. Mehr zu den Inhalten und Schwerpunkten der Konferenz gibt es im Netz unter http://www.attac.de/eu-ag/neu/news.php?readmore=24 ; detailliertere Informationen zu Programm und Anmeldung folgen.

--------

Die EU-Grundrechte-Charta und die Verfassungsdebatte

Bewertungen

Unverfasste EU - fassungslose Bürger

Verfassungsdogma „Offene Marktwirtschaft“. Ein Elitenprojekt des Klassenkampfes von oben. Artikel von Elmar Altvater in Freitag vom
09.03.2007 http://www.freitag.de/2007/10/07100101.php


Aus: LabourNet, 13. März 2007



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=EU-Verfassung

„Ab Herbst 2007 tritt die EU in eine neue Stufe der Überwachung. Sämtliche Telekommunikationsunternehmen sollen dazu verpflichtet werden, Daten über die Kommunikation all ihrer Kunden verdachtsunabhängig auf Vorrat zu speichern. Zur verbesserten Strafverfolgung soll leicht nachzuvollziehen sein, wer mit wem im letzten halben Jahr per Telefon, Handy, E-Mail oder IP-Telefonie in Verbindung stand. Bei Handy-Telefonaten und SMS würde auch der jeweilige Standort des Benutzers festgehalten. Zudem soll die Nutzung des Internets einsehbarer werden. Gegen diese orwellianische Entwicklung regt sich Widerstand aus der Netz- und Datenschützer-Szene. Die "üblichen Verdächtigen" der Polit-Aktivisten sollten sich dieser krassen Entwicklung bewusst und ebenfalls aktiver werden. Am 29. Januar wird es im Rahmen des ersten "europäischen Datenschutztages" in Berlin verschiedene Aktionen zum Thema geben…“ Grundlegender Artikel von datenschuetzer vom 14.01.2007 bei indymedia http://de.indymedia.org/2007/01/165957.shtml


1.000 Protestbriefe gegen Vorratsspeicherung von Telekommunikationsdaten

Breiter Protest gegen geplante Protokollierung von Telefon, Handy, E-Mail und Internet. Über 1.000 besorgte Bürger schreiben den 448 CDU-, CSU- und SPD-Bundestagsabgeordneten.Verhaltene Reaktionen der Parlamentarier. Pressemitteilung des Arbeitskreises Vorratsdatenspeicherung vom 15.01.2007 http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=79&Itemid=55


Aus: LabourNet, 16. Januar 2007

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Archive der Datenschatten. Die Vorratsdatenspeicherung leitet ein neues Kapitel im Umgang mit den Daten der Bürger ein

„Am 1. 1. 2007 einen Neujahrsgruß aus dem Urlaub per SMS verschickt? Aha, der Absender war in der Türkei und die Roaming-Kosten haben ihn nicht abgeschreckt. Die Empfängerin scheint ihm also wichtig zu sein. Wie viele Kontakte gab es denn in den letzten vier Monaten? - Vom Festnetztelefon aus mit einer ausländischen Botschaft gesprochen, und das zum dritten Mal in fünf Wochen? Moment! Wo will der hin? - Schon die dritte E-Mail an eine Beratungsstelle für psychosoziale Hilfe gesandt? Na, die Zuverlässigkeit der Absenderin für den öffentlichen Dienst überprüfen wir noch mal!...“ Artikel von Sebastian Lovens in Freitag vom 26.01.2007 http://www.freitag.de/2007/04/07040702.php


Aus: LabourNet, 30. Januar 2007



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Vorratsdatenspeicherung
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Datenschutz

Former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby goes on trial on Tuesday on charges of perjury in a case that has all the elements of a political thriller. The tale involves a spy's blown cover, the US administration's preparations for war in Iraq and elaborate intrigue among Washington's power brokers.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011507Z.shtml



Previewing Fitzgerald's Case Against Libby

Opening statements in the criminal trial against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, are still a week away, but the special prosecutor has already provided a preview into the government's case against the ex-White House official accused of lying to the FBI and a grand jury about his role in the leak of a covert CIA operative.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011607J.shtml



Jury Selection Begins in CIA Leak Trial

Dozens of potential jurors were asked their opinions of the Bush administration Tuesday as jury selection began in the perjury and obstruction trial against former White House aide "Scooter" Libby, who is accused of lying to investigators about his conversations with reporters regarding outed CIA officer Valerie Plame. Her identity was leaked to reporters in 2003 after her husband criticized the Bush administration's prewar intelligence on Iraq.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011607S.shtml



Scooter Libby's Time-Travel Trial

Robert Parry writes: "the real significance of the Libby trial is that it could demonstrate how far George W. Bush went in 2003 to shut down legitimate criticism of his Iraq War policies as well as questions about his personal honesty. In that sense, the trial could be a kind of time machine for transporting America back to that earlier era of not so long ago when Bush and his team felt they controlled reality itself and were justified in tricking the American people into bloody adventures overseas."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011707J.shtml



Libby Seeks Jurors Who Trust Cheney

Libby's attorneys say it's critical that know whether potential jurors view the vice president as credible. Two people who expressed doubts about that were dismissed from the jury pool Tuesday.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011707C.shtml



Sixteen Words and the Trial of Scooter Libby

Jason Leopold begins: "Four years ago this month, President Bush, in his State of the Union address, said, 'the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.' ... White House officials were fully aware that the intelligence was suspect, but allowed its inclusion in the State of the Union because it would help the administration win support for the war."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012307J.shtml

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Libby perjury trial will drag in Iraq policy

The biggest US political court case for decades opened in Washington today when Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to vice-president Dick Cheney, went on trial for perjury.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1991787,00.html


From Information Clearing House

--------

Libby on trial

AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo

01/17/07

According to many news reports, Libby’s will be the archetypal neocon defense: that a vastly superior being such as himself, who was concerned on a daily basis with the most earth-shattering matters — a veritable Master of the Universe — could hardly be expected to remember all the mundane details of his various machinations and campaigns to ’spin’ the truth. The American people are in no mood for this kind of arrogance, and — I predict — they will not take kindly to its prominent display in U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton ’s courtroom. Regardless of this jury’s verdict, Libby’s ‘don’t bother me with details’ memory-lapse defense is bound to convict him in the eyes of the public. And if the jury is in any way a proximate reflection of the public, their judgment is bound to be a harsh one...

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10341



Plame case: Fitzgerald is getting Nifonged

Mother Jones
by Daniel Schulman

01/17/07

What do Patrick Fitzgerald and Mike Nifong share in common? Not much, beyond the fact that both are prosecutors who have pursued politically fraught cases. But don’t tell that to Investor’s Business Daily, which published an editorial today calling for ‘all the rogue prosecutors’ to be reigned in. The paper’s prime examples of prosecutorial zealotry are Nifong, who recused himself last week from the Duke sexual assault case, and Fitzgerald, whose perjury and obstruction of justice case against Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby began in D.C. district court on Tuesday. ‘Like the Duke lacrosse players, Scooter Libby faces jail for alleged involvement in a crime that was never committed, pursued by a vindictive prosecutor,’ the editorial reasons. ‘And also like the Duke case, it’s a national disgrace.’ In lumping Fitzgerald with Nifong, whose case against the Duke lacrosse players appears at best deeply flawed and potentially politically motivated, Investor’s Business Daily is only the latest to deploy this disingenuous bait and switch...

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/index.html#3275


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Scooter's Time-Travel Trial

by Robert Parry, ConsortiumNews.com

The media, as usual, are missing the significance of a Washington insider drama.
http://ga3.org/ct/E720pgF1Kz8M/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Libby
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Fitzgerald
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jason+Leopold
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Parry

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12319798/


Informant: Alan Dicey

http://www.naacp.org/r/838/20168



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Darfur

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/5589/


From ufpj-news

Informant: Charles Jenks

Michael T. Klare writes: "It has once again become fashionable for the dwindling supporters of President Bush's futile war in Iraq to stress the danger of 'Islamo-fascism' and the supposed drive by followers of Osama bin Laden to establish a monolithic, Taliban-like regime - a 'Caliphate' - stretching from Gibraltar to Indonesia. While there may indeed be hundreds, even thousands, of disturbed and suicidal individuals who share this delusional vision, the world actually faces a far more substantial and universal threat, which might be dubbed Energo-fascism, or the militarization of the global struggle over ever-diminishing supplies of energy."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011507H.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Michael+T.+Klare

Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday defended efforts by the Pentagon and the CIA to obtain financial records of Americans suspected of terrorism or espionage, calling the practice a "perfectly legitimate activity" used partly to protect troops stationed on military bases in the United States. But the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee expressed concern over the expansion of the military's domestic intelligence collection efforts and said his committee would investigate how the Pentagon was using its authority.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011507G.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney

Paul Krugman writes: "Hundreds of news articles and opinion pieces have described President Bush's decision to escalate the Iraq war as a 'Hail Mary pass.' But that's the wrong metaphor. Mr. Bush isn't Roger Staubach, trying to pull out a win for the Dallas Cowboys. He's Charles Keating, using other people's money to keep Lincoln Savings going long after it should have been shut down - and squandering the life savings of thousands of investors, not to mention billions in taxpayer dollars, along the way."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011507F.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paul+Krugman

Private contractors and other civilians serving with US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan could be subject for the first time to military courts-martial under a new federal provision that legal scholars say is almost certain to spark constitutional challenges.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011507E.shtml

An anti-war organization launched by a 22-year-old Marine and a 29-year-old sailor has accumulated 1,028 signatures from active-duty and Reserve troops calling for an end to the war in Iraq, which has lasted nearly four years. The signatures will be delivered to lawmakers on January 16th.


http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011507C.shtml



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bannerman

The New York Times writes: "The Bush administration is eager to start work on a new nuclear warhead with all sorts of admirable qualities: sturdy, reliable and secure from terrorists. To sweeten the deal, officials say that if they can replace the current arsenal with Reliable Replacement Warheads (what could sound more comforting?), they probably won't have to keep so many extra warheads to hedge against technical failure. If you're still not sold, the warhead comes with something of a guarantee - that scientists can build the new bombs without ever testing them."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011507A.shtml

In Frankreich setzt eine spektakuläre Solidaritätsaktion mit Obdachlosen die Regierung unter Handlungsdruck.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/24/24447/1.html

Wenn Sie ständig unter Schnupfen, Halsschmerzen, Husten, Asthma, Entzündungen der Augen oder der Haut leiden und nicht wissen, warum, dann kann es sein, dass der Toner Ihres Laserdruckers oder Kopierers Sie krank macht. Bei den Erkrankungen handelt es sich vor allem um Entzündungen der Atemwege, die nicht selten nach kurzer Zeit auf die Bronchien übergreifen und zu Asthma führen. Dabei können schon geringe Mengen Tonerstaub genügen, um eine Sensibilisierung auszulösen, denn es handelt sich um eine pseudoallergische Überempfindlichkeit.

Viele Laser-Toner enthalten „Flüchtige organische Verbindungen (FOV)“. Diese wirken allergisierend, hormonell wirkend, toxisch und z.T. krebserregend. Sie werden beim Drucken freigesetzt. Die Nutzer sind ihnen dann unmittelbar und über lange Zeit ausgesetzt.

Eine besondere Rolle bei der Infektanfälligkeit kommt also den Tonerstäuben von Laserkopierern und Laserdruckern zu, die in geschlossenen Räumen betrieben werden, oft dort, wo Menschen in unmittelbarer Nähe arbeiten. Diese Tonerstäube werden beim Erhitzen, und dies ist technisch bei allen Lasergeräten der Fall, in die Umgebungsluft abgegeben, auch wenn es sich um geschlossene Kartuschen handelt. Besonders aber beim Wechsel der Kartuschen werden große Mengen davon frei und belasten die Atemwege und die Schleimhäute. Es gibt inzwischen mehrere Selbsthilfegruppen von Toner-Geschädigten, weil die Infektanfälligkeit vieler Menschen immer häufiger auf diesen Faktor zurückgeführt werden kann. Aus diesen Gründen verzichtet das Privatinstitut für ganzheitliche Medizin und Gesundheitsförderung im eigenen Betrieb grundsätzlich auf Lasergeräte und verwendet nur Tintenstrahlgeräte, bei denen diese Tonerproblematik wegen der fehlenden Erhitzung nicht auftritt.

Tonerhaltige Druckgeräte sind heutzutage fast allgegenwärtig: in Büros, Geschäften, Hotels, auf Bahnhöfen und Flughäfen, in Schulen, Arztpraxen und Krankenhäusern und in Privathaushalten.

Computer Bild-Tipp (s.u.) rät: „Vermeiden Sie direkten Kontakt mit Tonerpulver. Tragen Sie Handschuhe und Mundschutz, wenn Sie Toner nachfüllen. Waschen Sie sich anschliessend gründlich die Hände. In Räumen in denen Laser-Drucker in Betrieb sind, sollte weder gegessen, getrunken, noch geraucht werden.“

Weitere Informationen in den Websites:

http://www.computerbild.de
http://www.krank-durch-toner.de


Privat-Institut für Ganzheitliche Medizin und Gesundheitsförderung

Prices disconnected from fundamentals. House prices are far beyond any historically known relationship to rents or salaries. Rents are less than half of mortgage payments. Salaries cannot cover mortgages except in the very short term, by using adjustable interest-only loans.

http://patrick.net/housing/crash.html


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=housing+crash

The euro has displaced the US dollar as the world’s pre-eminent currency in international bond markets, having outstripped the dollar-denominated market for the second year in a row.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/572b41a6-a414-11db-bec4-0000779e2340.html


From Information Clearing House

U.S. troops, in possible violation of the Philippines' constitution, have taken part in combat operations against guerrillas linked to al-Qaida, an activist group said in a report Monday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070115/ap_on_re_as/philippines


From Information Clearing House

Warning that investors might be "in for a shock," a major investment bank has told the financial community that a preemptive strike by Israel with American backing could hit Iran's nuclear program.

http://tinyurl.com/ybnrd9


From Information Clearing House

U.S. Navy nuclear submarines maintaining vigil off the coast of Iran indicate that the Pentagon’s military plans include not only control over navigation in the Persian Gulf but also strikes against Iranian targets, a former commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Eduard Baltin has told the Interfax news agency.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16186.htm



Rice: UN sanctions on Iran 'not enough'

Talk of a military strike against Iran shows how serious it would be for the Iranians to continue down the path of nuclear development, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview with Channel 10 Sunday evening.

http://tinyurl.com/yhh4lo



U.S. says it will 'go after' Iran, Syria networks in Iraq

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that increased U.S. military activity in the Persian Gulf is meant to counter "very negative" behavior by Iran and undercut its belief that American forces are overcommitted in Iraq.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/813691.html



Rafsanjani calls for vigilance vis-a-vis United States

Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said that given the US failure to achieve its goals in the region, it is seeking to embark on a new adventure to cover up its defeat and urged the need for vigilance.

http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-203/0701158741153520.htm


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Condoleezza+Rice
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=SunBurn

Efforts to avoid a repeat of uproar over the Government ousted leader's rowdy execution were thwarted when his half-brother's head was severed by the noose.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15195259.htm



Anger at Saddam's half-brother's beheading

Iraqi Shiites, oppressed by Saddam Hussein, welcomed the hanging of two of his aides on Monday though some also joined Sunni Arabs in expressing shock that his half-brother’s head was ripped off by the noose.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16633276/



Saddam's aides were tortured by executioners, defence team claims

The defence team of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on Wednesday charged that two former Saddam aides were 'killed and tortured' and not executed as claimed by the Iraqi authorities.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1247785.php/


From Information Clearing House

--------

Saddam's Half Brother, Top Aide Hanged

Two top aides to Saddam Hussein were hanged before dawn Monday, and the head of one of them - the former Iraqi dictator's half brother, Barzan Ibrahim - was severed from his body during the execution, a government official said.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011507D.shtml

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Sunnis blast hangings

York News-Times

01/15/07

The Iraqi government’s attempt Monday to close a chapter on Saddam Hussein’s repressive regime — by hanging two of his henchmen — left many of Saddam’s fellow Sunni Muslims seething after the former leader’s half brother was decapitated on the gallows. A thickset Barzan Ibrahim plunged through the trap door and was beheaded by the jerk of the thick beige rope at the end of his fall, in the same the execution chamber where Saddam was hanged a little over two weeks earlier.

http://tinyurl.com/y97ymc


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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SECOND IRAQ HANGING ALSO WENT AWRY
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/world/middleeast/16hang.html


Informant: NHNE



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=executed
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Saddam

Signs so far have unnerved some of the Americans working on the plan. - First among these is a Shiite-led government that has been so dogmatic in its attitude that the Americans worry that they will be frustrated in their aim of cracking down equally on Shiite and Sunni extremists, a strategy Bush has declared central to the plan.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/15/news/policy.php


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge

By Desmond Tutu

The new Congress, led in the House by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is about to make its first decision regarding how America's money should be spent - a decision that leaves millions of lives hanging in the balance. Congress's choice to bypass 2007 appropriations legislation and extend fiscal 2006 funding levels into the new year will mean, in effect, cuts of almost $1billion in funding for programs to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16184.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pelosi

Video

Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky demolish one of the central tenets of our political culture, the idea of the "liberal media." Instead, utilizing a systematic model based on massive empirical research, they reveal the manner in which the news media are so subordinated to corporate and conservative interests that their function can only be described as that of "elite propaganda."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6435.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Noam+Chomsky

By Christopher King

Christopher King explores the phenomenon of the American peasant - that segment of US society which, through suspension of all critical faculties and indifference to the truth, defy logic and evidence by supporting the war against Iraq.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16179.htm

By Juan Cole

The president cannot seem to let go of his fixation on Al-Qaida, a minor actor in Iraq, and his determination to confront Iran and Syria. He still assumes that the insurgents are outsiders to their neighborhoods and that U.S. troops can chase away the miscreants and keep them out, acting as a sort of neighborhood watch in khaki. In fact, Iraq's Sunni Arab elite is playing the spoiler, and until a deal is negotiated with its members, no one will be allowed to enjoy the new Iraq.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16181.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Juan+Cole

By Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16175.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=impeach
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paul+Craig+Roberts

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0115-30.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0115-27.htm

Dr. King and the Media
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0115-29.htm

An Unrealized Dream of Justice
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0115-20.htm

--------

Thanks to all for your contributions to peace.

-Sheila

Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam
http://www.civics-online.org/library/formatted/texts/mlk_vietnam.html

--------

King speech, "Why I Oppose the War In Vietnam" today's relevance
http://wrybread.com/misc/vietnam/


Informant: Guillermo Kuhl



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Martin+Luther+King
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ira+Chernus
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+Carroll

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0115-02.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=troop+surge

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0115-03.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=taser

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0115-06.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Somalia

by Nancy Levant

They achieved their missions, first and foremost, by capturing financial control of research and development, and they did so by funding research and development via their corporate foundations......

http://www.newswithviews.com/Levant/nancy76.htm



Oregon State Trooper Suspends The First Amendment

by NewsWithViews NEWS

Surprisingly, said Brownlow, when he asked what law was being broken by him and his family, Trooper Moore replied, "When a trooper tells you that you are breaking the law, that is all you need to know."......

http://www.newswithviews.com/BreakingNews/breaking49.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/Levant